Part 112
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Lots More fabulous items/ideas for a Bioshock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Part 112 --- --- --- --- --- Pretty Pretty ... Why is There Sealife Inside Several Places in Rapture ? ' : Various Sealife of different kinds might have Bioluminescence (The typical depth in Rapture at 'street level' 600 feet down is QUITE DARK out there). It certainly made for pretty looking exterior terrain props in the general darkness of Rapture. But INSIDE ? The glowey sealife encrustations implies that Outer Persephone was flooded at one time (and that for long enuf to grow like that -- maybe with rotting corpses to feed the bacteria and so on up the food chain). Though the presence of growth unfortunately is more likely the product of the level artist's reuse of game Assets, rather than any intended story detail. --- --- --- '''Battleship Bay Beach & Water ' : Another 'scene' which doesn't quite work in a non-magical world. A Pretty Niagra Falls draining the 'Bay' and those minuscule water inlets (can you say "Undertow swept me to my death" 3 times real fast ... Even for that insufficient water replacement mechanism you still need excessively massive pumps. Maybe quantumz pumps? No doubt !! ). Where 'Surfing' or 'Swimming' there can be a method of public execution or suicide - 'plunging off the edge' ? Having that pretty Water Fall FACING the beach MIGHT have made 'more' sense, and been more spectacularly scenic for the patrons (and the game terrain). The scene didn't really need the 'falls' - except because it "looked good" (these 'scene's are planned out first, *THEN* the storyline is built around them). A spectacular 500 foot high waterfall is so much better than one invisible to the people on the beach, and also justifies the 'surfing' (water then flows TOWARDS the beach as mentioned is needed in the book "Surfing For Imbeciles and Game Developers".) --- --- --- 'The "Irish Problem" Was Sooooo 1860s. ' : By the 1890s they WERE the police and the firemen, and well established in the business communities. These game writers need to get their history straight. By 1900 massive numbers of Eastern European Jews were starting to arrive. Wasn't Levine recently playing up his (never heard of before) Character "Authentic Diversity" ??? Or is THAT kind of racism/bigotry just "too controversial" for this game's endless hype on its supposedly dealing with 'real' social issues and the alleged shortcomings of 'America' ???? --- --- --- '''Easter & Sons Premium Automated Stallions (Established 1904) : And before 1904 ? Before that, Columbia had real horses for 10 years ? Either way, the disconnected design of the city is one problem, and all those levels (horses don't go up stairs too well). Slight problem getting them to ride the Skyline, or even to get on a 'Tram' or 'Gondola'. Even with ramps, dung and urine makes a slippery mess and WAS a real world issue ... Now a Flying Mechanical Horse ... now THAT would have been interesting. (Comstock riding in a Chariot behind some ...) A shame. "Developed by Fink Industries for our troops" ... Cavalry enemies might have made a nice change (and another target type). "family-owned business" ?? But it says "Developed by Fink Industries" that seems a contradiction. I don't think the developers understand how horses legs or wheels work too much. 2 front legs (a horse's power is in its rear legs), mechanism out of phase and mismatched in ratio to the much larger 'wheel'. Trying to get traction (especially when heavy wagons are mentioned) using narrow wheels on cobblestones, or even any better road surface, is totally ineffective (it is why we have large rubber wheels on OUR cars). It might run well enough downhill. And LOOK - Magic blue crystals. Exactly how do (the assumed) 'quantum particles' generate power ? These thing's "motors" must be inside the contraptions backside (*** horse's ass joke needed here ***). Now having one of these things breath 'cold' and forming an icy slime trail as it glides along while chasing the Player -- THAT may have been one of those 'scenes' we would want to see (and then shoot the hell out of it). Of course at that point it should have been "Easter & Sons Premium Automated Snails" . --- --- --- Vigor Advertisements and Machines Selling Them all over Columbia : But no one (those racist bigoted white Citizens) ever seems to have any of the Gear/Vigors/other gimcracks the Player gets so many of (often found just laying on the ground). Numerous advertisements aimed at Citizens who never seem to have bought any of these 'Vigors'. Indeed most seem to cost a years salary... (machines accessible to the City's enemies .. now thats very thoughtful of them.) Couldn't we have had these enhancements just be seen used in Pre-canned viewed scenes where you might have a Joe Q Republic citizen turn on some Vox scum (all being a fixed sequence NOT having to deal with the Player's wildcard reactions/interaction). Or possibly some 'first shot' general NPC use, where the situation can use its precise initial placement and positionings so it can be simply scripted (no tactical intelligence required ...). Most of the problem is : that having NPCs actually tactically use the Vigors properly - ESPECIALLY in combinations - is fairly difficult to program (AI takes skill, effort, time, and dev $$$). Instead repetitious genericity is what you get in these games. - Huge Signs on Things in Columbia (and Later in Infantized Rapture) ' : When was the last time you saw a sign that large even in our world ??? Somehow the developers think that something blown up in scale will cover for the general lack of unique detail. - Columbia : Even if they had German SS style slave labor to lower expenses, where did all the money come from to build such monstrosities for so few people ?? Remember this is 'back when' most people couldn't afford to buy a small house, and rich people were too smart to fall for a charlatan like Comstock. So there simply WASN'T money for this hugeness. Huge signs, near empty voluminous shops - its kinda bass-ackwards there. (( '' 'Oz' was far more realistic '' )) --- --- --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone#20th_century_developments '"By 1904 there were over three million phones in the U.S" ' No Telephones in Columbia ?? Can't use the excuse that Columbia was launched in 1893, as they existed then too AND at the same time Columbia is shown with all this other advanced stuff that wasn't invented for decades (or ever). Telephones WOULD be presented as modernity in (THEN) America (Columbia the Show City, paid for/organized by the US Gov). And the place hasn't fallen apart like Rapture had (though it would have been fun with the Phones in Rapture to get some deranged Splicer on the other end ranting at you --- a dozen or so different Rants would have been sufficient mixed in with dead-lines and busy signals, buzzings, and ringing but with no answer). Heh - getting Andrew Ryan on the line, but then it turns out to be a crazy prankster Splicer. Same gimmick phone events for Columbia : * The Informer's Hot Line (report anyone not 'holy' enough, or seen fraternizing with the 'lesser' races) * City Maintenance - Report a malfunction before something bursts into quantum flames ... * Police - use the "Come Discipline the 'Servant' Service" (Policemen love their work...) * Pray for/to the Prophet (Toll Call) * City Planning department (My residence isn't voluminous enough, I would like an upgrade.) * Prank call - "Do you have Prince Albert in a Can ?" Well I just saw him in a trash can at the park... * Phone call from the Luteces ... "What the Hell is Taking You So Long ..." * Interesting Phone directory entries - Comstock's number (used for a prank call by Elizabeth) * Clues used in some part of the plot. * Cliche phone call by Elizabeth - some long inane teenager type dialogue for 20 minutes * Pizza delivery callback ... (Oh that's right, no conscientious WASP would ever eat such foreign Papist muck) --- --- --- '''Lutwidge Activities (Someone Needing Watching...) ' : Lutwidge apparently was trying to cover-up/obscure Rapture, trying to gain favor with Ryan (Lutwidge thought himself worthy to be in Rapture). Why would Ryan have stiffed Lutwidge in 1952 (when Rapture's primary city building was finishing) and stir up trouble ? The account given by Lutwidge may be his own delusion -- because he couldn't accept that his commercial deal had been finished (and had probably been notified well ahead of time of that happening by Ryan's company). But disregarding that, Lutwidge kept accumulating the materials he sold on (and got stuck with them). At what point had Lutwidge pieced together enough to realize what Ryan's big project was, and very much desired to go there - but then was told to 'piss off' (as McDonagh would say). Ryan (through his still substantial Surface Organization) would have been running many disinformation projects (of all kinds), and Ryan probably had Lutwidge watched as Lutwidge imploded. Reports of Lutwidge's "odd" behavior from anonymous sources may have reached the authorities. --- --- --- 'Another Post-Ryan Faction - The Telephone Company - RT&T (Rapture Telephone and Telegraph) ' : Telegraphy being the basis for a 'data network' which might/probably would have been immediately seized upon by Rapture's innovators in its 'Golden Age'. Communication is an important part of Rapture's infrastructure. Possibly centered in Minervas Den, as alot of that operation made use of the web of telephone lines all across Rapture. Ryan preserving its operation would be critical, and even after the Chaos started, its self-organization could make it a significant 'player' in the power shifts in Rapture. Other factions interested in stability an communication's utility would ally with RT&T. SO yes there probably would be various Phone Company flavored Splicers : Linemen, Operators, etc... --- --- --- '''Variables And Constants : There is ALWAYS "The Player made into a Pawn, and the Foisted 'Twist', and Alot of Sloppy Illogic". Those are the CONSTANTS of bad game writing. The VARIABLE is how badly the details are done. Seriously, Quantum Physics is about there NOT being "Constants" - HOW THE HELL could they NOT get that basic concept ??? (Sorry Kenny, infinite worlds exist without the lighthouse/man/city -- IF you actually follow what is defined in that REAL multiverse hypothesis.) Good writers justify things consistently, and write a plausible story to explain the particular situation they are trying to portray. The human element is 'The Story'. The technical details are only an effect, a setting. Willy-nilly making shit up, particularly about "Science", is just HACK writing. Another CONSTANT is that simplified repetitive Combat Mechanics and Scenarios in A Shooter Game SUCKS. --- --- --- --- --- . .